EVESHAM TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Police in Burlington County say they are investigating a bias incident after anti-Semitic drawings were found in a middle school bathroom.
Police responded to Marlton Middle School on Friday, Dec. 17 and found that someone had drawn a swastika and written comments about Adolf Hitler on a bathroom stall door.
Investigators believe the drawings were made on Thursday, but the exact timeframe is unknown.
Police are conducting an investigation and are currently reviewing surveillance video from the school.
"Any form of bias intimidation or hate towards any member of our community is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. I want to reassure our residents that this crime will be thoroughly investigated and that we have been in close contact with local school officials along with the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office," said Evesham Township Police Chief Christopher Chew in a statement.
Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina says the drawings are the second incident of anti-Semitic vandalism in the past three weeks.
"Too many times this year, I’ve written, our local chiefs of police have written, and our elected officials have written, that "acts of hate will not be tolerated." This is true, they won’t be," Coffina wrote in a statement released Friday evening. " But there are limits on what law enforcement can do to address hate speech or even hateful conduct. We can, and do, bring charges for harassment or bias intimidation when the facts support it. The real solution, however, is simply to treat each other with civility and decency, which the volume of bias incidents that cross my desk indicates we are too often lacking."
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